The Oakland Coliseum, where the Athletics usually play, is a regular major-league baseball park, with a pitcher’s mound that measures sixty feet six inches from home and bases that are ninety feet apart. But other teams have shinier parks, with fewer sewage issues and fewer feral cats. What would be a beautiful view beyond the outfield is blocked by a hulking structure commonly known as Mount Davis, because it was built at the demand of Al Davis, the former owner of Oakland’s former football team, the Raiders, at a cost of five hundred million dollars. That money was paid by the city of Oakland and the county of Alameda, in an effort to lure the Raiders back to Oakland after the team moved to Los Angeles—and before the team moved again, to Las Vegas. Oakland, whose unified school district is facing an enormous budget deficit, is still paying off the debt.
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